Hold Back the Stars Background

Hold Back the Stars is a debut science fiction novel by Katie Khan, published by Simon and Schuster Publishers (U.S.) in 2017. The Penguin Random House also published the same novel in the United Kingdom in the same year and translated it into 21 different languages. Khan graduated from Faber Academy, where she successfully finished a writing course and started working in a film studio in the U.K. Katie’s second novel, The Light Between Us, was published in 2018, but it did not receive many reviews like the first novel.

Hold Back the Stars is about space exploration, and it follows two central characters, namely Carys and Max. The novel opens when Carys and Max are stuck in space because they have run out of oxygen. The two friends have only 90 minutes to survive because their spaceship runs out of oxygen. The ship is damaged, and there is no hope of repairing it. The unfortunate thing is that Carys and Max have no good relationship with the people on earth. Therefore, they must do whatever they can to save their lives. When this couple realizes there is no way out, they start reflecting on their past and the circumstances under which they found themselves in space.

The flashback in the story hints to readers that Carys and Max are living in a utopian world after a nuclear war destroys the U.S. and the Middle East. Consequently, the utopian world is on space where people live after the world is destroyed. However, living in a utopian world is difficult because people must shift from one country to another and speak multiple languages. The problem with living in the utopian world is that a couple cannot live together past their thirties, creating a conflict for Carys and Max, who are about to start having children. Since Carys and Max met in their twenties, they now have limited time to live as a couple together.

The couple’s rule in the utopian world is the foundation of Hold Back the Stars novel because there is nothing like a perfect world in reality. Hold Back the Stars is a mix between science fiction and romance, which is entertaining and stimulating. The novel received positive views from its audience worldwide, prompting its translation into different languages.